A few  weeks ago, our Saturday was crazier than most. We were pretty much on super charged roller skates the whole day. We rushed from gymnastics, back home, to the city, back home and then finally reached the supermarket at about 4 o’clock in the afternoon. I have been working 5 days a week lately, so time management and prioritising have been more important than ever.

When we got to the supermarket, I grabbed a trolley and set out on my imaginary race against time to grab a week’s groceries in 10 minutes. Was it possible?  My mind thought it was, it had to be, we had to be out for dinner by 6 o’clock!

My precious little girl was by my side, eager to grab every item required as we rushed through the aisles at record speed. But, (yep there is always a but), we were stopped in our tracks by a lovely old man who was pondering which potato chips to purchase by comparing the sodium intake specified between the plain and the salt and vinegar chips. “Look at that!” He declared, “The plain chips have far less sodium in them than the salt and vinegar!” “Yep”, I said, “If you have to have chips, plain would be the better option!” “Yes”, he answered, and then it started. He told me about why he needed to watch his sodium intake, his recent health problems and his operations. He was in his element. I find it hard to cut people off, so I listened. Suddenly, I forgot we were strapped for time as I was swept up in his stories and his journey back in time.

His name was Chris, and he was an ex-boxer, had won the golden gloves twice, the southern hemisphere light weight once and stopped fighting because he had killed someone in the ring (who had been in an accident and should not have been fighting), with one punch. After this, he stopped fighting gave the boxer’s family his winnings and started body building. Met Arnold Schwarzenegger (who apparently is a great guy), and won Mr Southern Hemisphere. “Wow, is this guy telling the truth?” I thought. Then I looked at his nose and knew instantly that that was the nose of a boxer!

He told me that he had been bullied right through primary school, and started boxing at 13. This immediately caught my attention, as the past few months at home have been filled with my son telling me how much he wants to start boxing. He too is 13 and was bullied in primary school. I know deep down it’s a great idea, but I keep telling him he has the most beautiful nose and I like it where it is! But this drive, this passion I see in his eyes is bigger than that. I saw the same drive in this old man’s eyes. I was drawn into his world, and I eagerly listened and appreciated his stories.

We made his day, we gave him the chance to talk and we listened. But, he did more for me than I did for him. I love listening to people’s stories, especially the elderly who have led the most amazing lives, have a wealth of experience and have interesting, important things to say and share. He made me realise something that I have always ‘known’, but never actually ‘do’, that sometimes we just need to stop and forget about all the things we ‘need’ to get done, they will get done at some stage, and we need to make time for the opportunities that present themselves. Opportunities that help us grow as people and expand our knowledge and depth of understanding about each other and life in general.

I’m so glad we met Chris that day, I walked away from this grocery trip with so much more than the obvious. I walked away with the knowledge that we gave an old man the chance to tell his story, and that maybe we need to look beyond our fears of “what if”, when our kids come to us with a passion, a drive to do something that we are scared of. Sometimes, things in this world are bigger than us and they need to become reality.

We finally got to the restaurant, only 15 minutes late, to meet my sister and her beautiful family. And boy, did we have a story to tell!

A few weeks ago, “Rocky Balboa” was on T.V. I always knew it as “Rocky 6″, and I had never really watched a Rocky movie in its entirety before. My son, who is 13, was mesmerised. At first, I was unsure if it was appropriate for my kids to watch, but then as I became more engrossed in the movie, I too was mesmerised! It is a simple, hard hitting (literally!) movie about life, strength, determination and “guts”. Needless to say, we have now watched “Rocky 1″ through to “Rocky 6″, a number of times! I have to say though, I have really enjoyed it.

There is a quote that Rocky says in “Rocky Balboa” to his son. I am going to share it with you now. No other words need to be added, it pretty much sums it all up and delivers it with a punch! I hope it resonates with you as much as it did with me.

I woke up this morning at 4.30 with a horrible pain in my stomach. “What’s going on?” I thought, I had stuff on my mind but nothing that would cause this. When my little girl got up, she said to me “Mummy, what’s wrong?”. “Nothing”, I replied, as I ran out of the room heading for the bathroom for the fifth time!

On my return I tried to have breakfast, but this horrible pain would not settle. She looked at me and said, “I know what’s wrong, you wrote your blog now everyone knows your feelings and you are scared”. I looked at my little girl in shock and awe! How can someone so young understand so much when I didn’t even understand it myself! “Mum, you need to meditate with me”, she said. Instead of pushing her theory aside, I listened. She said, “Follow what I do, we do this in class!”

She made me sit on the edge of my chair with my back straight, lay my hands in my lap one on top of the other, and asked me to close my eyes. She then said she needed a “singing bowl”, we didn’t have one so she improvised and used a tin filled with stickers that was on the table. She struck it three times. She then asked me to repeat the word “Maranatha”, over and over in my mind, she said that they had been doing this in class and the mantra meant “God be with me” or “Our Lord Has Come”, in another language. We did this for a few minutes until she struck the “singing bowl” another three times. She then said “Open your eyes!” And I saw her beautiful, smiling face. She said to me “We meditated!” And yes, we had.

I kid you not, the pain had gone. I felt a heavy weight lift and I felt calm. I got a few cramps every now and then but the horrible pain had gone.

My little girl had looked into my soul and understood what I was feeling before I could. The fact that I had suppressed my intimate feelings about my and my son’s bullying experience for so long, had led to a very confronting, emotional backlash from my inner self once I had put it all out there for everyone to read. I see that now and I know that now, but it took my nine year old daughter, to show me.

We had a moment this morning, a moment I will never take for granted and I will never forget. “I love you”, I said as usual when I dropped her off at school, but then I added, “Today you taught me something amazing, and you changed my life forever, thank you!” Her smile said it all.

She took the “singing bowl” home from school today, (see picture above), and made us all meditate after dinner tonight! Who wanted to wash up after that! We were way too relaxed!

I learnt today that meditation connects us to our soul. I suppose I had always known this, but had never felt it before now.

Our kids are our greatest gifts. They have important, valuable things to say, what we need to do is make sure that we listen.

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